ADM. MICHAEL MULLEN: Thank you. To Tom and Nora and the organization that you represent, I can’t say enough how much I appreciate that you are leading this effort today. And I’ll talk about some expectations that I might receive, come out of this day. But your focus on this is absolutely critical. We need to continue that focus because I think these challenges that we have are just beginning to really be understood and there are decades worth of work and commitment that must be not just started now but sustained over a long period of time. So thanks to both the institute and to MOAA for what you’re doing.
Secondly, I’d like the – (inaudible) – VIP to introduce; I’d like Annette Conway to stand up. She’s married to the commandant and a special woman who has, in my mind – (applause) – taken care of those who have suffered in battle and has been a terrific leader. It takes leadership, in many ways, to make this happen. But it takes all of us. I’ve been to many, many conferences. And typically, in my professional career, they are conferences about war-fighting. And they’re sponsored by – in great part by defense contractors who are very focused on the weapons systems that we’re buying – the war-fighting capabilities for the future.
And so I see Lockheed Martin here; I’m sure there are others. And one of the things – one of the messages is I’d like to believe that there are no more critical war-fighting capability – war-fighting system than our people. And we don’t think about it very often that way but this conference certainly brings this to bear. And the need to make sure that we – as Secretary Gates has said, I think better than anybody else – one is – job one is make sure we get the right people to the fight.
Job two is to make sure that we take care of those who’ve been and their families. And that’s what you’re very focused on here, which is why I’m delighted to spend a few minutes with you. And back to sponsorship and focus. All of us in this business – (inaudible) – I think, has a responsibility to focus on this aspect of our war-fighting. How we treat those who have been affected and we should be mindful, this morning, of those literally who literally are in harm’s way as we speak and the families who are worried about them
And you know, our thoughts and prayers – I am in constant recognition that we wouldn’t have the great freedom to be here today to do this without those who are making those sacrifices. So how do we create a system throughout America that recognizes these challenges which are just beginning and that, in a way, that sustain them for the rest of the – sustains their needs for the rest of their lives given the sacrifices that they have committed themselves to and the challenges that face them.
And as I think about this I was – not too long ago, maybe about a month ago, up at the Boston V.A. – surrounded by brilliant people that the V.A. and touch or reach out to Harvard and Boston U. and the incredible intellectual, academic research world that’s there are very focused on this effort. How do we get at understanding PTS? How do we get at and understand the impacts of TBI?
And I’m schooled by sitting down with a young soldier two years ago down in – (inaudible) – with his mother, who had a very severe case of TBI who told me then, at lunch. I asked him how many times he’d been blow up. He said 30 times. And no matter what he said – basically the 30th one got him. Now, I’m not sure that’s the right answer. I will tell you I’m not a doctor but sitting with a doctor who studied it, this is different from a car crash. This is different from a football injury. This is different from being a boxer.
We don’t know yet how different it is, except that it is. And then you lay in the concussion aspects of this and you overlay that or interweave it with the PTS aspects of it and we don’t know yet how to pull that apart so that we can – that we can treat that injury effectively. The other thing – it very clearly out of it is that sooner you get there with effective treatment, the better off we are. And we don’t know how we tackle that, but it’s very clear.
So when I sit down in Boston and I meet a lady who has, for several years now, sponsored a study of some, I think 12 (hundred) or 1500 soldiers on PTS. And this is, if I leave one message for you this morning, it would be this: I asked her to tell me what you’re learning. And in research, we so often do the research and then how do we convert the research to actual action that’s having an impact?
And this study’s been going on for a while and I can’t – I have a sense of urgency about this that we’ve got to because of the timing thing. We’ve got to move this as rapidly as we can. So my message, I hope, that throughout today, you will talk about solutions, which are evident now and then how we take those solutions and actually implement them. There’s a tremendous amount of good work being done throughout our country.
And I focused just on the veterans that the V.A. hospital up in the northeast and Deborah and I visit those in our travels as we traveled to various bases and posts throughout our country. Last September – this is about a year ago – I sat in a room with 20, 20-plus OEF, OIF homeless vets. You know, I am a Vietnam veteran. I swore when this war started, not having any idea where I’d end up and believe me, not expecting to be in this job - that I would do all I could to avoid generating another generation of homeless veterans as we did in the – coming out of Vietnam and we still, decades later – we’ve not met that challenge for them. And shame on us. If we don’t figure that out this time around to make sure that doesn’t happen. And one of those – (applause) – and one of those veterans said to me, said I gave 100 percent. All I’d like is 100 percent back.
When we interact with Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, their families now, what Deborah is seeing routinely is PTS-kinds of symptoms in the families. You know, children – I tell – one of the stories I – if you go – I tell it – I go back to when this started, 8 years ago and find a 10-year-old boy or girl and my father or mother has deployed four or five, or in the case of Special Forces, countless numbers, I’m off in college and I don’t know my dad. And all of us who have kids understand that timing and what it says.
So we have put tremendous pressure and stress on families. And I think we are – we’ve taken great steps in dealing with that but at the same time, I think we are holding a lot in. And in the long run, there will be other requirements, as our dwell time increases as it has in the Marine Corps, and I believe over the next couple of years, we’ll start to do it in the Army, there will be other challenges. And so we have to have institutional refinements, not just in the services, not just in the government, but I believe throughout the land.
The sign for this is very challenging. It is very well resourced inside our government and many of you see us. Sometimes you see us better than we can see ourselves and I’m frustrated with the pace that we are moving inside our government. I think the Department of Defense and the V.A. have to work together to solve this. More importantly, I think the Department of Defense, the V.A. and communities throughout the country have to be able to solve this problem.
And I have great respect for the recognition of those who serve and sacrifice and their families, so we must sustain that. But at the same time, when they go home after the parade or they go home after the recognition ceremony, their dreams haven’t changed and their struggles are represented by the requirement, the desire they have to raise a family, go to school, send their kids to school, own a home. And those needs change over time.
And the only way that I can see us meeting that is through a community-based connection, broad connection that is sustained for them over the entirety of their lives. And when I talk about a long time in decades – these are 20-somethings. These are 20-somethings who are wounded. These are 20-something spouses with a couple of children who have 50, 60, 70 years to live. That’s where the sustained effort has got to come in.
We’re putting in the base right now. That’s where we are and that’s really, I think, our responsibility. I was with a spouse, the family of an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was killed – (inaudible) – PRT, who was killed in late May, yesterday. And the strength of this family and this woman is extraordinary, who on the one hand had been through something that none of us can imagine and on the other hand, can’t say enough how she appreciates what she has been able to learn from us over the course of their career up until this tragedy.
And it’s a reminder when I hear her and see her, how strong she is, of our obligation to stay connected. I tell the story of a young SEAL I met several months ago by the name of Ryan Joe (ph). And Ryan is blind, 60 percent disability and had this dream that he’s married. And he was, essentially, surrounded by his community in Marin County in California – and surrounded by not 10 or 15 mentors that cover training, education, counseling, rehabilitation, job-search, reintegration into society.
And there is a – there’s a wonderful story. This is sponsored by a guy named Mike Compton (ph) out of northern California, an organization that I consider is the, you know, the gold standard here because they have taken this vision that I’ve talked about and turned it into a full life for him. He’s about to get his bachelor’s. He’s going to get his master’s. He’s been hired by General Dynamics, moved to Scottsdale, Arizona with his family.
And he’s high-fiving everybody he can talk to about this. He can’t believe how terrific people have been. And those of us who are in support can’t understand his disbelief because we think it is so important. And the message there is that inside this – inside General Dynamics when I met with vice president of the sector that was sponsoring Ryan, one of the takeaways was how much General Dynamics was getting from Ryan Joe, not just in terms of production, but what a great, young man he was and what he taught them.
And any of you who’ve been to the wounded, visited families know that all of us take away more than we give in our engagement with them because they are inspirational. So I would hope that in the time that you’re here, today, and that there is follow-up – that we can focus on what are the gold standard – what is gold standard in various areas? Who is really doing the best work? And not trying to compete with that, but in fact, join it, spread that best practice as rapidly as we can.
How do we reach out to communities throughout the land? There are corporations here who are nationally based. And how do we do this? What are the areas that we’re focused on? What are the channels for this?
For me, it is our universities and colleges throughout the land – because they are community based; because they are connected; because they are sustaining; because they are focused on young people. And we have talked to a number of presidents of universities and colleges who are extremely interested in finding out who is in their community and how they can act in this regard. So how do we finance that?
And I have here with me Jim Lorraine. Jim, stand up. Jim, some of you may know – you can only – (inaudible, laughter). Some of you may know – Jim ran the Care Coalition for Special Forces. That is – right now – that is the gold standard as I look at what everybody else has. And that doesn’t mean – you know, each of the services works incredibly hard at it. And I’m not in it to compare, but it is to say that from what I see in this small force – and it is small – that is the gold standard.
And if I were growing a business, one of the things I always worry about in a business is, how do I grow? How do I take my culture, my investment, the things that have worked for me in a small 50,000-plus community or business, if you will, with the Special Forces and how do I expand it to a Marine Corps that’s 200,000; to an Army that 547,000; to a Navy. How do I do that?
That is our challenge right now and that’s why I hired Jim. And he is a direct report to me with a small group that focuses exclusively on family, warriors and the challenges that we have tied to the wounded and the surviving families in these wars.
And sadly and tragically, we are going to continue to generate this requirement. And that’s what I said earlier about Secretary Gates’ comments; we have no higher authorization as far as I’m concerned.
So thank you for doing this. You should know that it is something that I, needless to say, feel strongly about. None of us could do it alone. We can’t do it alone as one service; we can’t do it alone in the military; and we can’t do it in the department. This is, these are America’s citizens, the best I’ve ever seen in the military, who are going out and doing our country’s bidding without question. And they are sacrificing and we owe them a response to this that is equal to their needs.
This is a debt that we as a country, as far as I’m concerned, it needs to be the first check we write. Thank you. (Applause.)
MR. : Adm. Mullen has agreed to take questions. He is on a timeline that we’re going to have to observe for 45 past the hour. These are open forums and we want to make sure that you are at a microphone when you ask a question. And we even left you with some pieces of paper on your tables so you might form the question because you comment. We are not looking for an editorial. We want the editorial to come from here. If you go past 30 seconds without a question, I will invite the next one to ask.
First question –
Q: Thank you, sir. And I appreciate your encouraging words. My name is Michael Parker (sp). I’m a wounded warrior advocate. The Navy – (inaudible) – Sailors and Marines fit for duty and reporting them to duty. They are later – (inaudible) – separated when you – (inaudible) – conditions in the cases of disability benefits and a loss of their health care for themselves and their families. I’m asking what you can do in your leadership role to fix this problem so they get the proper disability or compensation. And it occurs to me that Air Force members are in the same position.
ADM. MULLEN: Who are you working with?
Q: I am an independent wounded warrior advocate, sir.
ADM. MULLEN: Okay. Let me – I’ll need to take the question and your e-mail address and I’ll get you a better answer than the one I’ll give you right now.
But when you talk about – in asking the question, you (degrade ?) the whole issue of disability. And we are very – I believe – very much still in transition. And I’ve got that we’re – I’ve got that this is year number eight. And part of my frustration is, with some of these things, we just haven’t moved more quickly. But that doesn’t mean we can’t move quickly now. We have some significant challenges which remain on the disability side.
We have filed it, in my view, for too long to provide disability programs that potentially, in the end, looks at whether or not the V.A. system is the best system to use in terms of establishing disability level. And, de facto, that’s what we were actually doing because we had service systems which then were reviewed by the V.A. – typically found to be different and therefore tied to more compensation.
And this is over a long history where we have focused on disability and not focused on ability. We focus on money and compensation – which is critical – but that actually becomes the reason to focus. And that is not the reason for it.
The young people we visit – I’m with all the – (inaudible) – want their life back. Time is important to them. They want to know what their future is going to be. We owe them that. So we owe them a system that answers that question. And we owe them a system part of which advocates for them – it is a system heretofore which has immediately created a hill to climb. The moment I start my disability, my meds or my – (inaudible) – process, I’m on a hill. And the word is, if you don’t get – you know, it’s 20 percent – that’s not – (inaudible). You need to figure out how to get to 30.
So the whole system is focused on how do I get to 30 because of the money – (inaudible). And that is the issue – and that is – compensation, the right amount of compensation is exactly the right answer. So how do we do that in a fair way, in a way that moves it quickly so these young people can get on with their lives and in a way that represents, I think, the right kind of approach for these – again, who have sacrificed so much – and that we ought to give them the benefit of the doubt because of their sacrifice. (Applause.)
I’ll need to take the specifics on the question about those who are being seen, evaluated and – (inaudible) – for one thing and discharged, not taking that into consideration. I’ll have to do some homework on that. I’ll be happy to get back to you.
Now, I say that. At the same time, many of you know me; I’ve spent a lot of time and money in Washington. There is not an infinite amount of money out there. And particularly when we look at the financial crisis that we’re in and the challenges that we have across the board. So there has got to be a balance here that we get this right. People are our most important critical resource. And they are in any time (of undertaking ?) these days, also our most expensive.
Q: Sir, Bart Dahlgren (sp), BSE Corporations. Is there an educational institution or organization that companies can work with on these issues?
ADM. MULLEN: Actually there are many. Now, I’d just invite you to take Jim’s e-mail address, connect with him and then he can match you up. Just last week I gave awards to our – a great organization called Newman’s Own focused on those who are doing great work for wounded and their families. And it’s a tremendous organization.
But the organization that won the grand prize was called USA for You (sic – USA Together). And USA for You was put together by a Silicon Valley group that essentially recognized a huge challenge for all of us. I believe there is a sea of goodwill in this country that will – (inaudible). And I see it all the time.
So the question is, how do I match a need to a donor, somebody that wants to make a difference? And I’ve got to have a vetted need and I’ve got to have a vetted donor. What USA for You did was put out a Web site that did exactly that. Now that’s the answer, quite frankly, in the country, that we need: We need it locally. How do we match a need to a donor? And I’m going to give Lorraine a round of applause when he figures that out and not before. (Laughter.) That is the biggest challenge in taking on this job. So if you have ideas on that, please get a hold of him.
One of the things that I’ve found out in this job that I have is a voice and a microphone. And I am happy to use it, particularly for this particular undertaking. So if you can think of ideas like that that are working that we might do in the future, that’s what I would hope – some of the things I would hope come out of this.
Q: Staff. Sgt. Robert Parsa (sp), retired. I’m a soldier from Walter Reed. Adm. Mullen, I’ve heard you a couple of times. I know you are very, very on the ball at coming up to Walter Reed, coming up with solutions on some of the issues we face. What I have – since I retired and before I retired, I’ve been reaching back to other soldiers who are in need of a lot of those programs that are out there and that have just been established since 2001.
And so they’ve kind of fallen through the cracks. How do we get them into programs that are now available? That’s a big issue back home in Arizona and now that I’m here.
ADM. MULLEN: Great question. When you ask me that question, one of the things I think about is, in the tragedies in families that occur when we lose somebody, the spouses have a very difficult time figuring out what is available – how do I sort of work through this? And we don’t have a very good inventory of – I mean, there are inventories of this, but I ought to be able to go to one place that says, you know, if you are a widow or a widower in these wars, these are your benefits or this – you know, a guide. We’re not organized well enough on that.
And you ask me that question – and it’s a great question – but I don’t have a good answer. How do we reach back to so many who were wounded early and don’t have any idea about what is available? And I’ll take that on and try to answer it in the system as well as get you a better answer than I can give right now.
Q: How are you doing, Adm. Mullen?
ADM. MULLEN: Pretty good.
Q: I’m Sgt. Charles Epps (sp).
ADM. MULLEN: Good to see you, Charlie.
Q: Good to see you as well, sir.
ADM. MULLEN: (King Charles ?) – (inaudible). (Laughter.)
Q: You got it. (Laughter.) I have a – I listened to your – (inaudible) – to the military to active – you know, it’s like regular or civilian life. I’m a wounded warrior as well. I’m at Walter Reed – (inaudible) – soldier. And I haven’t yet found a way for some type of database for the soldiers who are trying to reintegrate themselves into the system, as jobs. I run into a bunch of brick walls, so many. I say, hey, what the heck? Let me go into my own business and start my own company, my own IT company and let me try to see if there is a method out there for me to place myself on – (inaudible) – contracts since I can’t get a job. Let me try to do one thing and help other soldiers, friends, you know.
So my question was, to you, do you have a one-stop-shop – (inaudible) – or do you have a personal contact?
Q: Well, the personal contact would be Jim. (Laughter.) But you’re getting at one of the issues that I’m talking about – is how do I match a need to somebody equivalent to you? Part of – again, I’ve got Lorraine here doing this, but the reason I use the example of Brian Zho (ph) is because there are – I’ll focus on defense companies and defense contractors. But there are companies throughout this land that have nothing to do with this who would do the same thing. And it’s, how do you match that need – I need a job; I need to get on with my life – just what are the opportunities here with somebody who is willing to do that, both from the standpoint of counseling and direction as well as then matching somebody to finally meet that need.
So there clearly isn’t a one-stop shop. And this aspect of it – at least in my experience over the last couple of years from matching it up – is relatively new. So my compliments for soldiers –
Q: (Off mike.)
ADM. MULLEN: (Inaudible.) They’ve got 51 wounded. It’s small; it’s run by three guys and they are very deliberate about who they put in and how they vet. Well, I’ve got 30,000-plus who are physically wounded, an untold number of those who suffer from PTS and TBI. So tens of thousands more that we are finding out about that we owe this kind of connection to.
And what I worry about is there is – and this is part of us – and I think one of the things I hold, have come to believe is that when you sign a contract and it says 3 years or 4 years and I’m in the Marine Corps or the Army, at some point in time, six months or so before you’re do to get out, you become focused on one thing: that day.
Here is what I know about the V.A. from when I get out: education, typically. And I don’t know for the combat you’ve been through if you’re ready to get out. And I worry about those who have seen hell come back, focus on that day six months from now as a single point until they’re out. And they’ve been in the structure and they’ve got all their buddies and they relate to them emotionally, physically the rest of their lives – and then they walk across that bridge that day and they are alone. They have no trust. And they don’t have support. And they’ve got a lot to work through.
So when are you ready to get out? Now, changing that system in the military isn’t an easy change because I think we need to release individuals when they’re ready – not just at the end of their contract. Now, that’s a whole different kettle of fish, believe me – both individually and in the service. And this is actually what happens in the Special Forces.
However, they do that in the same [32:04] by the way. And I think that puts an individual in much better shape in terms of their transition. And, again, that is something else that we need to focus on. But we have got to do it early. Once they get inside that six-month window or whatever it is, that there is no stopping them when they get to that point. And that’s just not who we are. Okay?
Q: (Off mike.)
Q: Good morning, sir.
ADM. MULLEN: Good morning.
Q: I’m Sgt. Laurie (sp) with – (inaudible). And just a quick question – you did address some of the issues about transition of care. How do we and how can we as a military transition both our wounded and our surviving families? What is the model that we’re creating with a warrior or surviving family member who is sort of involuntarily displaced from what they thought was going to be the career or job of a lifetime? How do we really emulate the model that’s sort of used out in – there’s a best practice and standard-of-care for those hospices and hospital organizations – how do we step down people? That is one question.
And the other question was, you know that military families are the ones which sustain backbone when a soldier or sailor is deployed. What are we doing to address the needs of the family? I was very surprised recently when I was talking to some of the wounded warriors that some of the families don’t receive any type of respite care when, maybe, a family caregiver needs to go out of their home for a few hours while they’re caring for someone who’s ill 24/7?
ADM. MULLEN: As we travel – and, in particular, my wife Deborah – when we go to visit a post or a base or a camp, she will meet with families of the fallen. Now, I do that, as well; she does it more often than I. And the message that’s come back over the last couple of years is they want to stay connected, and it’s really hard to do that.
And I think – again, these are 20-year-olds, typically – I mean, young, young women, oftentimes with young children, who’ve known only one thing – the United States Marine Corps – for the last 3 or 4 years, or the United States Army, or you-pick-the-service. And it’s their life, and then all of a sudden – boom.
And I think that we owe them connection and support as they figure out how to move on with their lives and in fact, step down, themselves, either to stay connected or to move on. The number of families who stayed in North Carolina, you know, outside Fort Bragg or Pendleton or Lejeune is pretty extraordinary. And the message there is that this is my life and I don’t know anything else, yet, but I think I’ll get there.
To me, that, sort of, is the connection. And in fact, the Army has stood up a program about a year ago – and I think Sheila Baker (ph) has really led this – that does this. I can’t remember the name of the program, but essentially, it’s a program, funded by the Army, which goes after this kind of support. And they haven’t asked for much – the spouses. But they are asking not to be disconnected.
And there is a tendency, after the dust settles, to become disconnected or to be focused on those who are still in the fight, those who are still on active duty and all those. So that’s one piece, that I think more than anything else, we’ve got to stay connected. And over time, I think what happens, and what’s the step down – I would think that would almost take care of itself. If you’re connected well enough to what the needs are and how you meet them. What was the second question?
Q: It was about families that take care of the wounded with either TBI or PTS. I’m often hearing a lot of families are not getting the services that they may need, such as respite care. When they’re by the bedside of a loved one 24/7, they may need to go out and buy some milk.
ADM. MULLEN: Yeah. I think we need to – actually, there’s been legislation passed in the last couple of years, really, because of these families that have started to move in the direction of the right level of compensation for a spouse who gave up her career and whose full-time job now is essentially taking care of one of his or her wounded. And so there is support for that.
One of my challenges, and it’s one of the things that I’ve started to do, is I go up and I’m still responsible to the defense committees – so that’s Defense Appropriations and Armed Services. I don’t spend much time with the VA committee, and I don’t spend much time with other committees that, now, I’m involved with because of the challenges that we have, although they don’t have much to do with this particular – a couple other committees.
But how you integrate the VA committee and the defense committee, in a way – because in the end, they’re the ones who pass the law; they’re the ones that write the check. And so now, I look for opportunities to better integrate myself across those two committees even though I don’t testify in front of the VA. And I think we need to do more and more of that. All of us need to reach out from where we live to those that we are dependent on in this, and figure out a way to integrate that.
And then get at answering and understanding, first of all, what those needs are that you just described. And then, actually, Congress has been terrific recognizing that. And the VA has – (inaudible) – organizations that are here to make those changes, many of which have been put in place because we recognized those shortfalls when these wars started. We may not have all the answers now.
And then the other reaction to the question is we probably are pretty spotty in implementation of meeting those needs that aren’t legislated and funded at this point. But oftentimes, they can be met by organizations that live in that area, based on understanding those needs. One of the challenges we have as a country is, in communities throughout the land, how do we know who’s there? And there are HIPAA issues associated with that, and those are other things we need to break down so that communities who want to help actually know somebody’s living there that needs that help, and making that a very simple connection. Last question.
Q: Thank you, sir. I say this with all due respect and love in my heart, but I wanted a quick correction for my question. Previously, you mentioned the U.S. – (inaudible). Actually, you were saying – (inaudible). And –
ADM. MULLEN: (Off mike.)
Q: Yes, yes. And thank you very much, I’m sorry about that. You can’t – (inaudible) – (laughter). And I appreciate you calling attention to some of the Gold Star service providers that are providing great service. I’m curious if there are any Gold Star models that you’ve seen where these VSOs have been able to reach the public.
And with this new cycle that we’re in, and with Twitter and Facebook and all these things, are there any organizations that we’ve seen that you say, wow, they’ve got a great model for reaching the public? And the second part of that question is would the military community ever embark on a PR campaign to try to educate the civilian population to some of these pressing issues that we’re talking about?
ADM. MULLEN: The White House is represented today. And believe I know he’s taking notes. And one of the things that is so important about reaching the public is the fact that the president and first lady have taken these issues on, as well. Nobody reaches the public better than he and she. And we are so appreciative of what they’re doing.
I would say that for us in the military, we haven’t done it for the reasons I – (inaudible) – because we haven’t done that to the degree that we should and can. And I really think from my perspective, less so than from the service chief perspective – only because I was a service chief and the service chiefs don’t have the audience, they don’t have the exposure that I have. And that’s one of the reasons that I take it on as a responsibility.
But it’s not just about me or them; it’s about all of us. And I take your point that through Twitter, which I am up on, and Facebook, there are opportunities here to do this in ways – in fact, my wife is tweeting. And she is tweeting exclusively about families; about all these issues. So I would encourage others to do that.
The community base – what I think on it – there are two paths that I’m headed on to try to do what you just said. One is working through the Chamber of Commerce nationally, down to local chapters throughout the land, and connecting them. And I’m at the beginning of that – actually three ways to do this.
Secondly, to establish what I would call a clearinghouse that I didn’t describe – and this isn’t just a concept because we put quite a bit of work into this, and I’m hopeful that in the next couple of months, we’ll actually have a model which will create an opportunity just like the one you’ve got, except we go nationally and fully across the board.
And the other is this presidents of universities piece, because they have an appetite for it, they want to understand it, they want to help, and they’re so well-connected in the community. In fact, your boss, who accepted the award the other day, was asked, you know, what else could we do, and I asked him just to connect.
And I go back to what I said at the beginning of this – that there are great opportunities. And, believe me, I don’t have the ideas. So that’s on you and others like that. So those are three of the initiatives that I’ve got underway right now to try to do exactly what you’ve said. Okay? Thanks, have a good one.